by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - The streets are quiet, the fanfare subdued and the mood somber.

This is the glorious Hall of Fame weekend, the year Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, two of the greatest players in baseball history, were supposed to be inducted into the Hall.

Instead, for the first time since 1965, no living person will be inducted.

The honorees instead are from only the veterans committee ballot, and all are deceased: New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, umpire Hank O'Day and barehanded catcher Deacon White, who last played 123 years ago.

There were only 34 Hall of Famers who came to Cooperstown (about half of the living members according to the Hall's website), and who knows, if Bonds, Clemens or anyone else with ties to performance-enhancing drugs were elected, maybe there would have been even fewer attendees.

"It's a shame more Hall of Famers aren't here,'' Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven said, "because this is really the time they should be here.''

Instead of a weekend of celebration, Hall of Famers are left answering questions about steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, with Cal Ripken Jr. so fatigued of the subject that he stopped talking about it.

"I'd be very disappointed if any of those guys get in,'' Robinson said. "I do think though, they will get in. When I'm dead.

"I get disappointed when I hear guys say, 'I only did it one time.' That upsets me, too. One time, what's the difference? I only robbed a bank once. ... The way I look at it, those guys cheated. They created an uneven playing field. I don't have any sympathy for them.''

There was no talk of Bonds or Clemens throughout the lobby or restaurants of the Otesaga Hotel, where the Hall of Famers stayed. Matter of fact, Robinson even forgot this was their first year of eligibility.

"It's sad, it's sad for the game of baseball,'' Blyleven said. "Baseball has to take a stand. The commissioner of baseball (Bud Selig) has to make a stand, whether it's Alex Rodriguez or Ryan Braun or whoever it is.''

Yet Blyleven and others believe it should be even tougher. Forget a 50-game suspension. Make it a lifetime ban, they said. If nothing else, its' time to at least permit a club to void the contract of any player caught using performance-enhancing drugs.

Blyleven isn't sure what makes him more nauseous, the fact that Braun forfeited $3.4 million of his remaining $127 million contract by sitting out the rest of this season, or that the Toronto Blue Jays signed Melky Cabrera to a guaranteed two-year, $16 million contract after testing positive last season for testosterone.

"I think baseball was very lenient on Ryan Braun,'' Blyleven said. "My personal feeling is that he shouldn't be able to play next year, either. â?¦ Come on, guys have been warned enough. If you want to clean it up, you have to be very, very aggressive. And they have to put their foot down and say this is where it is, to scare the young kids that might have that opportunity to do what Braun was accused of, and Rodriguez and other guys.

"It's the current-day players that have to speak up, and say, 'Enough is enough.' We want to play on a level field. We don't need these guys who need to be juiced to make themselves better and sign these long-term contracts like Melky. It's also the clubs' fault. They gave Cabrera a multiyear contract.''

Yet while one day players with performance-enhancing drug suspensions likely will elected into the Hall of Fame, Bob Gibson says they still will be welcomed by him.

You see, if steroids were around when Gibson pitched, he conceded he might have taken them, too.

"What surprises me is that the best ballplayers in the world thought they needed to do that,'' Gibson says. "But I've got to say, if it had been me, and I thought somebody would have been given a little bit of an edge (from performance-enhancing drugs), I'm not so sure I wouldn't have done the same thing.

"I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision. You guys would have been talking about me instead of them. So I can't be too critical. I don't know what I would have done, so I can't be holier than thou.

"I think we've all done some things that we aren't too proud of.''

Sure, this weekend might stink for business in Cooperstown. The crowd Sunday is expected to be down at least 50% from recent years, with attendance less than 10,000.

Yet in many ways, maybe baseball should celebrate this weekend like no other.

The Hall of Fame voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America took a stand. And for the current Hall of Famers, this is their time. This is their weekend. Who knows, maybe it really will be the last Cooperstown weekend of innocence.